Sermon for 1st Mid-week Advent, Our
Savior’s Belview, 12-6-2023
Grace,
mercy, and peace be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. Amen.
Luke 1:67-79 Now his
father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: 68 "Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has
visited and redeemed His people, 69 And has raised up a horn of
salvation for us in the house of His servant David, 70 As He spoke
by the mouth of His holy prophets, who have
been since the world began, 71 That we should be saved from
our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, 72 To perform the
mercy promised to our fathers and
to remember His holy covenant, 73 The oath which He swore to our
father Abraham: 74 To grant us that we, being delivered from the
hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, 75 In holiness
and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. 76 "And you, child, will be
called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord
to prepare His ways, 77 To give knowledge of salvation to His people
by the remission of their sins, 78 Through the tender mercy of our
God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; 79 To
give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our
feet into the way of peace."
Sing praise for the Lord’s salvation.
Dear children of the heavenly Father,
Can
you imagine the joyful emotions that had to be flooding through Zacharias as he
held his newborn son. After so many years
of frustration and continual prayer for the Lord to give him and Elizabeth a
son, the wonderful blessing had finally arrived. You could expect that Zacharias would praise
God for giving them a child to provide for them in their old age, for a son to
carry on the family name, and for removing the stigma of childlessness in a
society that perceived barrenness as a curse from God. You might expect Zacharias to give thanks for
the possibility of someday having grandchildren, or perhaps simply, that his
voice had been restored. You might even
expect Zacharias to be thanking God for overlooking his impatience and doubt
that the Lord would give him a son. In
fact, though, Zacharias doesn’t mention any of those things. Rather, he Sings praise for the Lord’s salvation.
Zacharias
had spent his life as a dutiful priest to the nation of Israel, but it is
apparent that his faith had its weaknesses, which likely shouldn’t surprise
those of us who have also had our doubts and questions about God and His care. When the angel, Gabriel, startled Zacharias
with the good news that finally in his old age he and Elizabeth would have a
son, Zacharias faltered. He had believed
God’s promises in the Old Testament, but when put to the test by the promise
that he would be a part of its fulfillment, he couldn’t quite believe it
true. Now though, with the proof in his
hands and filled with the Holy Spirit, all the doubts were wiped away, and we hear
in Zacharias’ song his confidence and sure hope in God’s promises.
It would be easy for us to read this text and think of
ways you and I should be obedient from now on, but that would use it as law,
and Zacharias sings pure, sweet Gospel:
"Blessed is the Lord God
of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people, and has raised up a horn
of salvation for us in the house of His servant David.” Zacharias looked into the gift of his baby son,
and he didn’t just see John, but the promise of the Savior of the world whom
John was preceding.
John was a great blessing for Zacharias and Elizabeth,
but the humble priest understood that there was a much greater blessing coming
from the Lord after their little miracle baby had been born. God Himself was coming to earth to save people
from their sins. The Son of God
visiting—living right here in this troubled world with the hurting people God
loves. The Son of God doing everything
necessary to buy back the lost from the clutches of evil. The Son of God—powerful in conquering any
enemy, any danger, any foe—now at last, Zacharias clearly
understood God’s plan and believed it!
Zacharias said, “He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets…that we should be saved
from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.” All his life, Zacharias had been immersed in
the teachings of the law and the prophets, but now it all made sense to
him. God wasn’t working to save His
people only for this world but for the world to come. God had long foretold of the Savior He would
send, and that the Savior would deliver God’s chosen people—but not just from
Roman oppressors, or Persian, Egyptian, or Greek—for God was delivering mankind
from the hand of every enemy force. The devil,
who despised mankind from the beginning, would soon meet his Maker born in
human flesh, but the devil would be on the losing end of the battle. Satan, that hater and liar, the oldest enemy
of God and man, would be crushed under the heel of the One and Only Son of God
and Man.
The
prophets had foretold this day. Zacharias rejoiced to see it. He was at the threshold of God’s action “to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to
remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham.” All that had been lost in the fall into sin
was now being restored. In loving mercy
for a fallen race, God was coming to fight and finish the battle against man’s
most powerful enemy. You see, when God
lifts up His hand to swear, the promise is as good as done. Zacharias understood that truth, and what
great joy was his to know this battle was as good as already won.
The
Savior of the world was at hand, “To
grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him
without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our
life.” As we look at our lives, we
certainly see lots of times when we are no more faithful than Zacharias in his
moment of weakness. We believe the Lord,
but how often we doubted. We wanted to
live right, but mostly, we wanted to avoid punishment, so we served out of
fear. We wanted to tell the story of
salvation, but how often our tongues were tied by doubts and fears. Jesus came to rectify all of this and to
restore righteousness and peace to His redeemed people.
Jesus
came to take away every sin that has been committed in history. He came to live in perfect agreement with His
Father’s will and perfect obedience to His Father’s law. Jesus did that for you and me, and His
righteousness is credited to our accounts.
The Law has no more hold on the believer. It is finished, fulfilled by the Son of
God. Therefore, we truly can serve our
Lord without fear. Just as Adam could
walk through the Garden of Eden comfortably at peace with God, so now can
we! Jesus has restored perfect harmony
between God and His people, and no Satan can ever again take it away.
Today,
we can walk fearless in this world of torment, because the old evil foe has been
chained by the life, death, and resurrection of God’s Son. We can faithfully serve our God knowing that
we have life that will not end when our bodies are laid to rest in the dust,
for we have a home in heaven waiting for us because of Jesus. That’s what Zacharias, too, saw as he looked
down at his little baby boy. No longer
would Zacharias worry about his old age or about who would take care of him in
his frailty. The Savior was entering the
world, and this little boy that Elizabeth had delivered would be calling people
to repentance before the revealing of the Savior to the nation of Israel. John is the prophet God had promised through
Malachi. John would proclaim repentance so
that many of Zacharias’ friends and neighbors could be saved.
Zacharias sang,
"And you, child, will be called
the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to
prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission
of their sins.” Zacharias rejoiced because now he knew
that he had been forgiven. His doubts no
longer separated him from his Father in heaven.
He praised God for that blessing and for the blessing that many more
would also be saved.
You
and I, likewise, rejoice day after day, week by week, and year after year,
because we too have been forgiven. We
have been brought to faith in Jesus. Our
sins were washed away in the water and Word of Baptism. The Holy Spirit has entered us and filled us
with faith in the promises of God and in His Son. All those times we doubted, all the times we
stumble, or our tongues failed to speak God’s praise, all those sins were taken
away, and now by faith, we truly can Sing
praise for the Lord’s salvation. We
sing it here on earth with nothing to fear, and we will sing it forever in the
presence of God in heaven.
“Through the tender mercy of our God, with
which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; to give light to those who sit
in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of
peace." Zacharias
remembered Isaiah’s prophecy, “The people
who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of
the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.” (Isaiah 9:2)
Dear friends, Jesus is “the
light of the world.” (John 8:12) His glorious light shines on us and gives us
the way to heaven—poured out upon us in the water and Word of Baptism and the
hearing of the Gospel. It is also His
light that we shine on the world as our faith reflects Christ’s glory. The darkness of death no longer touches those
who walk in Jesus’ light. In His glory,
darkness has been banished, never to trouble us again. Therefore, enjoying forgiveness and salvation
through your God-given faith in Jesus, Sing praise for the Lord’s salvation. Amen.
The
peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.
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